In Ireland the retirement age was 65 years, now it is 66. Any Person born after January 1 1955, the age of retirement increases to 67 years, and Who ever was born after January 1 1961 the age of retirement increases to 68 years. In Europe it is likewise. My Question is when I'm 66 or 67 years of age after working in very physical labour all My Life on building sites, Who would keep Me in employment ? Who would be willing to continue to pay My wages, when I'm all used up ? I am aware that Governments are attempting to ease the pressure on the pension fund, yet many of these Countries have massive unemployment also. Why not reduce the retirement to 60 years, and there would be plenty work for the young unemployed.
It's certainly an option to consider reducing retirement to age 60, but your social security deduction for the past 25 years would need to have been increased by about 55%. Or you could retire at 60 and have those young unemployed (now employed) pay 55% more for your early retirement. Or you could retire at age 60 and take no pension until age 67 or 68. But then you would need to save up for this. As you can see, there is no free lunch (or free retirement in this case).
When I turned 70 it was like a light switch going on and I found myself having mobile issues... like trying to get up when doing something on the floor... oh gosh, now what, how am I going to get up. This scared me, as it felt like just a decade ago I was a gym rat... so much for doing weights, doesn't help get up off the floor :P
And now I find after I come home from work, after working only mornings, I find myself dozing off right after lunch. And government wants to raise the retirement age to 68?
i saw the article had quite a few comments attached so I perused them and there was almost a common hatred of the elderly espoused- most by millennials I suppose who seem an entitled bunch anyway
The whole point is to have just as much money to raid while cutting the payouts.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
My family tree:
*Paternal g'pa died at 57.
*Paternal g'ma died at 74. (Entered nursing home at 68, because dementia was at a level where she was leaving stove burners on; wandering the streets handing out $20 bills; mis-identifying family members.)
*Maternal g'ma died at 66.
*Maternal g'pa died at 67.
*My Dad died at 64.
*My Mom died at 74. (Cognition and mobility deficits started in late 60s and advanced steadily.)
Social Security loves gene pools like mine. Big pay in. Small payout.
And to someone else's very good point: The cutthroat business world has no interest in ushering its workforce into their 7th decade. Companies will be "right-sizing" their way to the bank -- moreso than usual.
I think big wage earners should have to continue contributing all year not just stop when their salary reached a certain level for the year.
another thing that i think should be stopped is teachers being able to save up their sick time and when they retire be paid that amount as if they are still working. I knew one teacher who was paid for an entire extra year. I see no problem in accumulating sick time so it can be used for actual sickness or donated to seriously ill colleagues. Part of my pension comes from the UK and depends on the exchange rate. It is now $200 less a month than a few years ago.
I have been totally appalled with the treatment of old people in the US. They are cash cows to be overcharged and swindled. You can write your congress people all day about making it illegal to have phone and mail lists that target the elderly. The only protection in place for them is their family, and most of them don't even care. The government won't address the high costs of end of life care, but complains all the time about how Medicaid is driving the country broke. The answer, of course, is to find some way to regulate healthcare and medication costs -- those are the problem. Instead, they want to handle things on the consumer side. All this does is deplete all the resources of people and takes a huge dip into the tax dollars -- 25% the last I heard spent for healthcare.
I do wish countries would go back to caring about their people and less about how much money the companies can make. Hmmm... I sound like the 99% now.
A one size fits old retirement age does not make sense to me. A 60 year old farmer has different retirement considerations than a 60 year old accountant, for example.
I think that the income cap needs to be increased significantly for both single people and households. I also think the number of quarters someone needs to be employed needs to be increased significantly for both single people and households. That said, I think the way we define work in this country is warped. Currently, stay at home moms or dads are not included in the definition of work. And neither are family caregivers.
Looking just at retirement age is myopic but that's what I've come to expect from our legislators in Washington, D.C.
Re: contributions to SS and being able to "opt out" during working life....WOW....never heard of that and find it pretty shocking to think that someone working for the gov't could possibly only contribute to SS in their last 10 working years and be eligible for same amount of benefits as myself, contributing to SS for over 30 years, while they were apparently keeping those $$ for themselves.....am I misunderstanding you??
Or if you have a computer problem and get a tech on the phone... they might as well be speaking in Klingon.